New P40 Request.

[ElAurens]

Would it be possible to get void and default skins posted so I can start on reskinning of my personal Hawk 87s?

I have hundreds of H 87 skins currently, and of course they will be history after the upgrade.

[Treetop64]

I'd like to see a simulation of realistic operation of the P-36/P-40 gear mechanism and it's operation by the pilot.



Seriously, that would be nice. Successfully operating the landing gear in a P-40 after takeoff and before landing would bring a huge sense of accomplishment itself, regardless of how the rest of the mission turned out!

As for the skins, I hope at least the default skin(s) are up to the usual DT standards. Looking forward to what the rest of you P-40 painters create after that.

[FlyingShark]

What's so special about the landing gear of the P40?

~S~

[ElAurens]

It was based on a Boeing patented design that had a gear at the top of the
gear strut that made it rotate as the gear came up, to allow the wheel/tire to ride flush with the wing.

I'm not sure what Treetop is on about other than that, and it does come up that way if you watch in externals.

[SuperEtendard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuD7I-HlYVc

[FlyingShark]

Thanks, guys.

~S~

[Treetop64]

I'm not sure what Treetop is on about other than that

What I was on about is that in some models of the P-40 there was no electric motor to drive the hydraulic pump, and the pilot had to manually operate the hydraulic pump that operated the gear. With other models the pilot selected the landing gear with a switch and then operated the electric hydraulic pump with a trigger button on the control stick. At any rate, it was just a passing comment with no seriousness about it, and only mentioned it because I thought it was an unusual procedure for gear operation for an American aircraft.

I was not speaking of the articulation of the gear.

[ElAurens]

I knew about the trigger on the stick to run the pump, but not about a total manual system.

Time for some research.

Thanks.

[ben_wh]

Back to ElAurens' original post - I don't know whether this is feasible, but is there a way to develop a small program that'd 'convert' existing P-40 skins to the new mapping?

There are lots of great P-40 skins out there representing thousands of man hours of work by skinners. And these are used in dozens of campaigns and hundreds of missions. It'd be a shame to lose them all.

Cheers,

[Pursuivant]

What I was on about is that in some models of the P-40 there was no electric motor to drive the hydraulic pump, and the pilot had to manually operate the hydraulic pump that operated the gear.

I could see that being modeled as a variant on manually retracting/extending the landing gear, only rather than mashing a key multiple times to simulate cranking a handle, you have to hold down the appropriate key for a certain length of time to simulate holding down the pump control trigger.

[Pursuivant]

Back to ElAurens' original post - I don't know whether this is feasible, but is there a way to develop a small program that'd 'convert' existing P-40 skins to the new mapping?

I'm hoping that the new skin mapping for the late P-40s either follows the same mapping as was used for the Hawk 81/P-40B-C/Kittyhawk series (so skins for that plane can be used for any type of P-40), or uses nearly the same mapping as is currently used for the late P-40/Warhawk series, so old skins can be used with just a little gap on the plane's belly.

Currently, the modded version of the P-40E/Warhawk, which just fixes the dihedral, uses the latter strategy.

Were TD to do the same thing, if they gave the unskinned model a light gray color players could still use existing skins and the gap would barely be noticeable.

[Rot Bourratif]

I would love to see the latter versions trim wheels turn as they do in some other A/C

[majorfailure]

... or uses nearly the same mapping as is currently used for the late P-40/Warhawk series, so old skins can be used with just a little gap on the plane's belly.

As long as the double use of skin tiles is not carried on thas an option, but I think it would be difficult to do one without the other. And even if I've got to recreat some P-40 skins, I'll gladly do so when I can get the results I want, which isn't the case now - try making som RNZAF skin with white bands across the plane - no can do, the wheel housings reuse some skin parts from other places. I've had problems with other planes, but IIRC the P-40 was the worst plane to make a skin for up to now.

And i support the request to have a void skin for the new P-40s as soon as possible

[ben_wh]

Pursuivant,

I read from the old 4.12 update on P-40 development that the old skins will not fit the new models anymore.

The good news is that we may be able to get the -F, -K, and -N variants in game finally. Macwan seems to be developing a variety of skins (for different air forces) for the new models, and Macwan's skins are of very high quality as we have seen.

It is still a shame to have to part with some of the fine P-40 skins such as those by R0NNC0 and other artists.

R0NNC0's skins for the 325th
http://www.mission4today.com/uploads/DL2011/images/03/3955_grab0000.jpg

[WG655]

With the New p40's we could also have a two seat TP-40 for the new co pilot feature!

[Pursuivant]

With the New p40's we could also have a two seat TP-40 for the new co pilot feature!

I don't think it was ever used in combat, or even flew in a combat zone, so probably not an option.

OTOH, training planes that did get pressed into combat roles would be a welcome addition.